348 THE GREAT ANTARCTIC ICE BARRIER. 



ice. Researches in the arctic regions to the north 

 east of Behrings Straits also show that immense ice 

 cliffs formed of pure ice exist "at Cape Maitland, in 

 Liverpool Bay, from 80 to 100 feet^-high," which 

 * present to the sea a constantly frozen wall. " * 



Similar ice cliffs, but still more gigantic in size 

 and of enormous extent, were found in the antarctic 

 ocean by the South Polar Expedition, under Captain 

 Sir James Clark Ross, in 1843, who traced them 

 extending practically without a break for a distance 

 of 450 miles, from Long. 100 E. to Long. 165 E., mostly 

 in the 75th to 7 8th parallels of latitude, f 



This great range of ice cliffs is entirely unexampled 

 in any other part of the world, and proves beyond question 

 the much greater severity of the climate in the South Polar 

 regions, compared with anything yet discovered in the 

 northern, and shows the stupendous magnitude and thick- 

 ness of the Paleocrystic ice, which exists within the ant- 

 arctic circle. This great ice barrier, so far as could be 

 ascertained, was from 180 to 200 feet in height. It 

 seemed to be flat on top, and to form the seaward 

 face of an enormous collection of ice and snow, 

 which had probably been in process of formation for 

 thousands of years. 



The ancient ice in the antarctic regions was also 

 found to extend much further from the pole than it 

 does in the arctic ; and a violent succession of heavy 

 gales appear to succeed each other throughout the 



* Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald, by Sir John Richardson, 

 Edited by Professor Edwd. Forbes, F.R.S., 1854, p. 5. 



f See Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic 

 Regions, by Capt. Sir James Clark Ross, R.N., 1847., Vol. i., p. 232. 

 (Some plates of this wonderful ice barrier are given in Vol. i. of Sir 

 J. C. Ross's work). 



